Talking with Your Portrait Subjects

My Sunday series on outdoor portraiture continues today with a portrait of Natasha. She is a young model who I was fortunate enough to photograph at one of the group model shoots hosted by the late Dave Hall in Phoenix, Arizona.

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George Bernard Shaw

When I was a young photographer, I asked my mentor what was the worst thing I could do during a photo session. My guess was that he would tell me about some kind of technical error—like  using the wrong flash sync—but to my everlovin’ surprise, he said, “not talking to the people.” Jay then added, “If you don’t talk to the people you’re photographing you’re never, ever going to make a good image.”

If you expect to produce either marketable or photographs where the subject looks their best, communicating with them is the single most important thing you can do when making portraits. This is especially when working in the glamour and boudoir genres when you subject may be wearing less than normal attire and might be the slightest bit uncomfortable. That may be why the second question that aspiring glamour photographers ask me is how I talk to models during a shoot. (The first question is where do I find glamour models.) These shooters want to know what’s I think is the best way to communicate honestly and effectively so that the model will pose with assurance.

It’s All About Communication

The reality is that, depending on their personality, I talk to every model differently and the type of shoot were doing. If you haven’t read my post, Photographing Different Kinds of Portrait Subjects, give it a read when you have time. It might give you some insight in determining where to begin. I think it’s one of our most jobs as photographers to find a way of working with the model that makes her relaxed during a session. The answer is, as my friend Rick Sammon likes to say, “it depends.” With some models, I’m a goofball and other times, depending on a specific model’s experience level, I’m quiet and just shoot.

I once did a shoot alongside two famous glamour photographers and was struck by the different ways each of them worked with the model. One old school gentleman quietly talked to the model before he started shooting but once they began he never said another word. Since he had already told her what he wanted, after each exposure, he made a small grunting sound (no kidding) and that was her signal to move to the next pose they re-planned. The other photographer was a deliberate shooter who, in real time, gave the model specific directions to the quarter-of-an-inch of a pinkie pose placement (say that fast three times) and would not clikc the shutter until he thought his composition and her pose was perfect.

How I Made this Shot: You don’t often think of Arizona as lush and green but  that’s exactly what we encountered on this movie studio located near Phoenix. Natasha is posed on the porch of a building, which I called “the little house on the prairie,” which was like a western homestead but on the other side was a depiction of was an old schoolhouse. The interior of this building is the location where I made the portrait that appeared in my first Stupid Photographer’s Tricks post but on this day, I was (luckily) anything but stupid while working with this sweet model.

The camera used was a Canon EOS D60 with the EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens, with the soft focus set a zero—no soft focus—which is why this is such as useful and versatile lens. The totally available light with no flash, no reflectors used was 1/40 sec at f/5 and ISO 200. The image was lightly retouched in Photoshop with just a little bit of burning and dodging.